BlockBeats report: On May 27, South Korea's stock market's remarkable rally has pushed its cumulative gain since the beginning of 2026 to nearly 100%, surpassing historic rallies seen before the dot-com bubble burst and during South Korea's industrial boom in the late 1980s.
Driven by sharp gains among memory chip manufacturers such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index has continuously set new all-time highs, surging from 5,000 points to 8,300 points in just a few months. The index rose as much as 5.1% during intraday trading on Wednesday. Even before mid-year, its current performance rivals the 102% rally seen by the Nasdaq 100 index prior to the dot-com bubble burst in 1999.
However, few market participants are issuing bubble warnings for the Korean stock market, as they believe the global demand structure for memory chips has shifted from a traditional cyclical pattern to a more long-term, sustained growth trend.